Alex Weber was only sixteen years old when she began this work. From ABOUT on her website, she describes how it started:
"In the spring of 2016, my dad (Mike Weber) and I (Alex Weber) were freediving along the central coast of California in the shallow waters adjacent to the Pebble Beach golf course, when we came across a discovery that had never been reported before. Thousands of golf balls blanketed the seafloor, and inhabited nearly every crack and crevice in the underwater and onshore environment. The overabundance of inorganic materials was overwhelming but for a second it did not phase us. As we began diving to the bottom to collect the balls, we realized what perfect freediving training it was and the whole operation felt like a fun game; we were having a blast. But soon, the enormity and vast scale of the pollution set in and it made me feel sick to my stomach."
She could be spending her time standing in the middle of a mob with a protest sign. Instead she's taking action on her own. Each of the videos on her website is worth watching 'tho much of what you see might make you, too, sick to your stomach:
https://www.theplasticpick-up.org/